The next day, they left the inn and started their journey to find the knight Delstadt. “That girl in the previous inn was really beautiful, don’t you think, Drevid?” asked Jareth. “Yeah, she is pretty but it seems like you got your eye on her, my dear brother.” said Drevid. “I mean, how couldn’t I? She is gorgeous and nice and caring and- Okay I get it, you love her. You can marry her for all I care.” said Drevid. “You think so? But what if she doesn’t like me back?” asked Jareth. “You are kidding, right? You were so lost in her eyes that you haven’t noticed that she was lost in yours, you two are a match made in heaven” said Drevid. “Is that a jojo reference?” asked Jareth. “What” said Drevid, confused. “No matter. Well I can’t wait to get back to her after we finish this” said Jareth. We now switch to Johnny and Milos who are riding in front. “Now that I think of it, you are completely mad for a future king because what the fuck will happen now that the regent is dead?” asked Johnny. “Aren’t they all? Well, you didn’t think of how Sentras will see it. He will think that Voris killed the regent so that they couldn’t plot against him. And now Sentras has a reason to start a war.” replied Milos. “When you say it that way, it doesn’t sound that bad. But where do you imagine us in the crossfire?” asked Johnny. “Simple, we can use both sides to our advantage” said Milos. “I trust you have a plan for that?” asked Johnny. “I do, my dear friend” replied Milos. In the great hall of Chauf, Sentras sits on the throne, waiting for the regent when suddenly one of his men rush in. ‘Sire! Sire!” he yelled. “Calm down, tell me what it is.” said Sentras. “Grand Regent Alexandris sire. He is dead.” said the man. Sentras’s eyes widened by the shock. He clenched his jaw in anger and punched the side of his throne with his fist. “That bastard! He thinks that killing big people will stop an upcoming war, but he just invited it earlier. I will not stand for his selfish act that he disguises as patriotism.” said Sentras. “Ready all units and find me general Duvendreit!” Sentras ordered the servant. “Yes sire” said the servant as he ran off. In the valley of Snakes, the fellowship that is traversing to the gloomy mountains, stumbles upon a great host of 12 thousand Fjondari troops marching towards the border of Gaudhamms. Without muttering a word, the group passed through the troops and continued onto their path. After the army was no longer visible on the horizon did someone say something. “Holy shit! Milos, are you sure you did the right thing by killing the regent??” asked Drevid. “I stand by my decisions till the end.” responded Milos. “I know but like, you know how many lives will be taken because of this? I mean, is the throne worth that much?” asked Drevid. “If my rule can bring prosperity to these godforsaken lands, then yes. The throne is worth that much, if not even more.” replied Milos.

  The horn of Fjondari has been blown. The soldiers scream from the top of their lungs as they rush into each other. Arrows fly, spikes penetrate, armors break, bones crush.

  “You may not yet see the full picture, Drevid.” says Milos while smirking

  Men yell in agony, in despair but also in courage, in strength. They fight with ambition. The Fjondari’s warriors slowly push through the defense of Gaudhamms fighters.

  “After this kingdom breaks, which I hope it will. I will come as its saviour, its last hope.” added Milos

  Suddenly, a horde of goblins disrupts the clash of the two kingdoms, attacking both sides with no remorse. Men overtime lose their confidence as the number of the enemy rises. Their will to fight and die for the kingdoms suddenly extinguishes as the possibility of victory becomes miniscule.

  “Then, they will welcome me with open arms and I will show them how a true king is supposed to rule!” says Milos with hope glistening in his eyes.

  Barely any soldier on the battlefield stands. Even the mighty goblins are close to none. But only one of them stays and it’s for the same reason why the other left. The men stay and fight and the goblins flee because of loyalty and honor. Goblins have no allegiance to anything, they have no kingdom, no homeland to return to, so they flee so they can save their sorry asses and live another shitty day.

  “Because that is my role, because that was the reason why I was born!” says Milos while others admire his boldness.

  On the border, only the wind lives. The valley is full of corpses and weapons no man can bury. It is said that anyone who gets close to the battlefield will get sick and die because of how vile the smell of the rotten bodies is. “The battle of beasts” is pronounced as a stalemate.

  “I think that before we enter the caves of Drak-bandul, we should set a camp here on the mountains.” says Johnny. “Remind me once again, why the fuck are we passing through the caves where there are countless creatures that roam in them?” asked George. “Because we don’t have much time to go around the mountain. Now help me to get the sticks for the fire!” said Johnny. After the sun went down, Jareth, Johnny and Milos started making a plan for where to go after the caves. “After we pass the caves, we should go to the lake of Kru” said Johnny. “You sure? I heard a lot of bad stories about the lake of Kru?” asked Jareth. “Yes, I know. It roams with ghouls and wraiths but that is exactly why we should go through there. No outsider dares to roam in those parts and the locals don’t meddle in politics so it is safer to go through there.” replied Johnny. “And how exactly normal are these locals?” asked Milos. “I… I don’t know. but… it is better than to risk getting caught by Klistorm soldiers, is it not?” asked Johnny. “I suppose it is. Very well then, after we pass the Drak-bandul caves, we head straight for the lake of Kru.” Milos announced to everyone. Deep into the birchgrey forest in the lands of Voletaria, king Mormani and the new king of Madren called Fitranik, hunt for sport. Mormani has already caught 2 rabbits and Fitranik none. Fitranik finally spots a rabbit and when he and Mormani hide to shoot it, a servant jumps out of the bushes, making Fitranik miss and scare the rabbit away. “Stupid Connier! Next time you startle us like that, I will personally chop your head. You better have a good reason to be here?” asked king Mormani. “Yes my king. The reason I came here was because king Sentras of Fjondari had declared war on king Voris of Gaudhamms and the first battle had already played out on the border where both sides lost.” said the servant Connier. “You fool! Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier??” asked Mormani. “I didn’t want to disrupt your hunt so early.” replied Connier. “See what kind of idiots serve me, Fitranik?” asked Mormani. "At least they are empathic idiots that care about your hunt, I think that is better than just an idiot.” replied Fitranik. “I guess you’ve got a point there.” said Mormani. During their conversation, the second battle has already struck, deep into the Gaudhamms’s territory. The Fjondari soldiers pushed through and that led them to victory. The fellowship slowly entered the caves of Drak-bandul. For a while, the caves were just an empty maze then out of nowhere the fellowship found a few lost unknown people. The place where they found them was dark and wet. With a lot of mold which was weird because that much mold can't grow out of nowhere . “Who are you?” Jareth asked. “We are no more than basic expeditioners sir, and we have lost our path. Can you please help us?” asked the first expeditioner. “We lost our leader that knew how to traverse here and we don’t know what to do without him.” added the second expeditioner. “Where were you headed before all this happened?” asked Milos. “We were headed to the lake of Kru, and we learned that this is the quickest way to get there but we didn’t know about how much of the maze there is, and the goblins, there are many of them.” said the first expeditioner. “It’s strange because till this point, we haven't encountered any goblins.” said George. Jareth spotted the mold and when he went to inspect it, he found the skin of a fox full in mold. At that moment, loud drums were heard and the fellowship knew that the goblins are in fact here. Suddenly a light, as from a torch, appeared on the end of one tunnel and was slowly getting closer. The fellowship and the expeditioners pulled out their weapons, ready to fight but what they did not expect was that the one with the torch was the leader of the expeditioners running towards them. “Run! Run away! They are coming!!!” he yelled. All of a sudden, a horde of goblins appeared behind the expeditioner and when the others spotted the horde, they got so frightened that all of them ran in multiple directions. They ran and ran and ran until eventually all of them entered the same massive cave that spans for miles on end. “Are you mad? Why did you bring the goblins here, Mithlas?” one expeditioner asked their leader. “I was thinking that if I ran, I would eventually lose them but more and more of them kept coming and I didn’t know what to do so I continued until I found you and now we escaped them so I think I did an okay job.” replied Mithlas. “Okay? Is that what you call fucking okay?? You know that if the tunnel was a dead end, we would all be their dinner?” asked Drevid. “And who are you?” asked Mithlas on top of Drevid’s question. Before any of the fellows could answer, the goblins had found them so they ran. After a while they got to the end of the tunnel in which was a pit with no visible bottom. “They are right behind us! What now?” asked one expeditioner. “I suppose we jump?” suggested Jareth.”Are you mad? You don’t even know how deep that hole is.” said Johnny. “Well what is your plan? To sit here and let the goblins kill us?” asked Jareth. Johnny got a little angry knowing how reckless the jump was but still they all jumped. When Johnny woke up, he saw a horrifying sight. In front of him lies one of the expeditioners with his sword stabbed through one ear and exiting from another and the worst thing is that the expeditioner was alive and fully aware of his situation. The expeditioner was crying and spitting blood. “Please help me, good sire! I'm s-so scared of the other side, please don’t let m-mme leave! Please don’t let the darkness take me away from my mother!” he whimpered in pain and fear as the blood was gushing all over him. When the others saw the scenery, the expeditioner was already dead and Johnny was kneeling, staring into the dead body of the poor fella. Jonathan took a deep breath, stood up and walked to Jareth. “You realise how stupid your plan was?? Look at him!!! He is dead! I can’t believe I was actually stupid to listen to you and jump!” said Johnny to Jareth. “And what were we supposed to do? Just let goblins kill us and eat us like some kind of prey?” asked Jareth. “No! But there could have been another way, there always is.” said Johnny. “Stop it you idiots! There probably was another way but we didn’t have time for it so we had to jump but that doesn’t matter. All that matters now is how we can get out of here.” said Milos. Out of nowhere, two arrows fire and kill 2 remaining expeditioners leaving only their leader with the fellowship. They run and finally they reach the exit of the caves. As they are running, an arrow hits Mithlas in the leg and he falls down, groaning in pain. “Let me carry you!” said Johnny. “No! I will just be a burden. The goblins will catch you if you carry me.” replied Mithlas. “We can’t just leave you here!” said Jareth. “It’s fine. I can hold them off just in time for you to escape. Besides, I can’t really be a leader if I have no team to follow me.” says Mithlas. The fellowship looked at him for a moment and ran for the exit. As they escaped, agonizing screams were heard coming from Mithlas as the goblins were eating him alive. At the exit there was a large river that was connected to the lake of Kru and luck had struck them because they found 2 boats that were tied on a random fence in the middle of nowhere. They took the boats and set sail to the lake city of Kru. Back in the cave of Drak-bandul, heavy breath after heavy breath after heavy breath was heard from someone and that someone is none other than Mithlas who by some miracle survived but with great loss, all he had was one arm which he used to drag himself to the exit. Just before he could reach the exit, something called him. He turned around and a soft attractive voice was calling his name. He dragged himself to the source of the voice until he stumbled upon a horrifying monster. This monster was a creation from the very Malrok itself. (Malrok is the devil from this world). And this monster was one of Malrok’s main three servants, this was.. Envy. At first Mithlas was scared but the monster soothed him, told him that it means no harm and he listened. It pulled out a cup of wine and told him “Your life is thin, on the brink of disappearance. Why not widen it? Are you not jealous of those that escaped? Are you not jealous of how they get to live and you don’t? Well I say, take that emotion and strengthen it. The desire to have what they own will push you to achieve every goal you want to achieve. If you want it bad enough, I will give you this cup of wine to drink so you survive and live a life of determination.”. Mithlas couldn’t see that the monster was trying to trick him so he drank from the cup not knowing he guaranteed a life of envy. When he drank the whole cup, he started choking and fell unconscious. After a few hours, he woke up outside of the cave but something was strange, no, something was unbelievable. Mithlas woke up with his whole body. No cuts, no slashes, no bitemarks, nothing. It’s as if it was all a dream but he knew it was not. But the strange thing was, the only thing he felt in his body was a fire, a desire. He felt desirous, he felt greedy, he felt jealous, he felt… envious. His mind has already been corrupted by the devil and he no longer has control. Right now, his only goal was to kill the fellowship because they had what he lost, they had each other while he was now alone, all alone in this rotten world.

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